Brand Name Painter

Brendan O'Connell finds art buyers in the aisles of a supermarket

A wood-burning stove heats Brendan O’Connell’s barn. Here in picturesque western Connecticut, he grows much of his food and has a near vegan diet. The barn, however, is full of Oreo cookies, Utz chips, Jif peanut butter, Uncle Ben’s rice and other household items–or rather, paintings of them.

“These brands represent where we are as a culture,” says O’Connell, a 45-year-old painter. …